The present disclosure relates to image forming apparatuses and particularly relates to a technique for dealing with an inadequate toner container.
A general electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes: a photosensitive drum as an image carrier; a charging device that electrically charges the photosensitive drum; an exposure device that irradiates the charged surface of the photosensitive drum with laser light based on an original document to form a latent image of the original document on the surface of the photosensitive drum; a developing device that visualizes the latent image with toner; a transfer roller that transfers a toner image formed by the visualization to a sheet; and a fixing section that fixes the transferred toner image on the sheet.
Recently, there is increasing use of inadequate toner containers different from a suitable toner container recommended as a product suitable for an image forming apparatus. Since the inadequate products are different in performance in the suitable product, the use of inadequate toner containers may prevent provision of a sufficient level of performance of the image forming apparatus.
There is a general image forming apparatus that determines whether or not a loaded toner container is a suitable product using a radio-frequency (RF) tag attached to the toner container and a radio-frequency identification (RFID) communication device mounted to an apparatus body of the image forming apparatus. When determining that the loaded toner container is an inadequate product, the image forming apparatus allows its display panel to display a warning message informing the user that an inadequate toner container is loaded, thus prompting the user to use a suitable toner container.